There are two factors that affect the value that stakeholders place on a
requirement. The grumpiness that is caused by bad performance, and the happiness
that is caused by good performance. Failure to provide a perfect solution to
some requirements will produce mild annoyance. Failure to meet other
requirements will cause the whole system to be a failure. If we understand the
value that the stakeholders put on each requirement, we can use that information
to determine design priorities.
Is the stakeholder value defined for
each requirement?
Pardee suggests that we use scales from 1 to 5 to specify the reward for
good performance and the penalty for bad performance. If a requirement is
absolutely vital to the success of the system then it has a penalty of 5 and a
reward of 5. A requirement that would be nice to have but is not really vital
might have a penalty of 1 and a reward of 3. The overall value or importance
that the stakeholders place on a requirement is the sum of penalty and reward.
In the first case a value of 10 in the second a value of 4.
The point of defining stakeholder value is to discover how the stakeholders
really feel about the requirements. We can use this knowledge to make
prioritisation and trade-off decisions when the time comes to design the system.
